And come to think of it, weren't the U.S. women favored two years ago in the Solheim Cup in Sweden, only to get pummeled, 17 1/2 to 10 1/2, cutting the Americans' lead in the biennial series to 5-3?

So, brace for pretty much any possibility and any outcome when the two 12-member teams of top pros duel in the ninth staging of the three-day match-play event often described as the women's Ryder Cup.

If the golf lives up to the hype, also brace for plenty of emotion and trash-talking, which already has begun.

"The Euros better get ready, because they are going to get beat," U.S. rookie Paula Creamer vowed in a bit of Namathesque bravado. At 19, she is the youngest player in Solheim Cup history.

Nancy Lopez, the U.S. captain and a living legend in women's golf who has a daughter older than Creamer, shrugged off the chin music.

"She's 18, 19, she can say anything she wants," Lopez told reporters this week. "It's nothing against the Europeans. She's just excited to play, she's very enthusiastic, and I love it."

Of course, it's not bragging if you can pull it off, and that's precisely what Lopez is counting on.

Besides Creamer, one of three U.S. rookies along with Natalie Gulbis and Christina Kim, Lopez has a formidable mix of midcareer players in Cristie Kerr, Laura Diaz and Pat Hurst, and Cup-savvy veterans in Juli Inkster, Meg Mallon, Rosie Jones and Michele Redman.

As with the Ryder Cup, 10 players make the team through a points system and two players are captain's picks. For her picks, Lopez went with two veterans: Beth Daniel, a reliable teammate who has played in all but one Cup, and Wendy Ward, a two-time Cup member who can be streaky.

The Europeans, captained by Catrin Nilsmark, boast the best player in women's golf, Annika Sorenstam, along with veteran Laura Davies, who is as much a bulwark to the Europeans' Solheim teams as Colin Montgomerie is to their Ryder Cup team.

The rest of the European team is rounded out by names that are familiar to many LPGA Tour fans, such as Carin Koch, Sophie Gustafson, Catriona Matthew and Karen Stupples, and several that aren't in Ludivine Kreutz, Maria Hjorth, Iben Tinning and Gwladys Nocera.

Like their male counterparts in the Ryder Cup, the European women have dominated in the alternate-shot matches, 14-6-4, over the last three Cups.